Transmission

JDW's short film, Transmission, is finally online. Here it is for you to enjoy.
This will most likely serve as our final post.
Bye!

Transmission Tapes

After some vague clues and emoticons* Chris Roberts' score for Jared D. Weiss' film Transmission is finally available on limited edition cassette tape (only 50 copies!) Buy it here!

Each purchase comes with a tape, immediate download of the album, and exclusive access to the film before its festival premiere dates!

You can even receive a free postcard personalized by me with your order while supplies last.

And here's a fun fact: this is the first Otherworldy Mystics tape that was completely designed by me, as I not only made all of the packaging design (made to look like a prop within the world of the film) but I also designed the company logo.

* (88[| + ^..^> + [O..] = [•-•]

Transmission

Via my personal blog:

This is a gif from my thesis film, Transmission.

It's about the four-eyed creature you see above, Quad-Clops, and his dog, 2D, after they find a radio in the barren post-apocalyptic wasteland that is their home, and their journey to find new life.

The short film was completely hand-animated by me in Flash over the course of six months, though I've been developing the story for a couple years. Music for the film was recorded by Chris Roberts, and we're working on putting it out on an extremely limited edition set of tapes through Otherworldly Mystics if anyone's interested.

The film will be premiering at SVA's Dusty Film Festival on May 7th at the SVA Theater on 333 W23rd St in New York City, and after that I'm going to look into submitting it to festivals before putting it publicly online. But I may find a way to make it available to those that really want to see it.

Stay tuned!

This is basically what made me leave VFH behind a year or so ago, so I figured now's about time you knew why.

Breaking the Silence

Just wanted to leave a note here, for passers by. After almost 8 years, different hosts, and several pleas to try and get this site the attention and variety it once craved, I've come to terms with what it's become.

It's not much, but it was a nice 8 year chapter of my life, and the site will live on as proof of that. Sure, our old hosts have long gone, and thus some of this chapter is missing. But I'm ok with that. I'm proud of the work both my team and myself have done over the years, and I'm kind of shocked that we all managed to run this on our own free time for that long. I've made some great friends over the years thanks to VFH, both near and far, and if that's all I have to remind myself of my time here then it was worth it.

This isn't the first semi-depressing letter I've written here, but it's most likely the last. I've just become too busy with other work to actually maintain this by myself for no compensation.

I won't close the site or our social media accounts, I could never bring myself to do so after all the time we've put in, but updates on our Facebook and Twitter will probably be kept to a minimum barring a few note-worthy links here and there. It's not much, but it's the best I can do given the time I have.

However, I myself am not going away. Feel free to follow my art blog, Twitter, or even my Tumblr; each of which are generally regularly updated with my thoughts and latest works. When I'm not self-promoting I'm generally talking about movies, music, TV, comics (and all the other crap I like and would generally speak about here in full length when given the time). Who knows, maybe some day I'll have a reason to come back to this place and start writing again, wouldn't that be swell?

Thank you to everyone, I'll see you later.

The State of VFH Address

Hey, just a little something not Fringe or Doctor Who related. We still exist. Well... I do at least. But when I'm not writing here on my free time, I'm very busy. I go to school, I work in a studio for a whole day each week on what should be my one day off, and when I'm not going to school or work I'm back home, drawing, animating, and doing research for my next film. Sure, sometimes the research involves reading comics, watching movies, and playing games as they apply to the subject matter, but generally its all older things, and I've always tried to keep our content based on new releases. Because of this, my writing time is very limited, and if it weren't for Zach writing the bulk of the Fringe reviews this season, I probably wouldn't do them at all.

I've gotten to see a bunch of movies in theaters that I still haven't reviewed, i.e. Season of the Witch, Unknown, and Rango; one of which I've really enjoyed enough to recommend it to a lot of people. And I've listened to a lot of new music that I haven't gotten to review either. I haven't had any game time though. I bought Mass Effect 2 on PS3, and some older titles, but I've had literally no time to play them, let alone review them. If I do any gaming, its... Angry Birds on my iPod, and right before I go to bed. But despite all this, I've got a 3DS pre-ordered (no games though), as does Zach, and I want promise a rush of 3DS content, but we'll see where the week takes us.

Why the gradual lack of content? Real life, to put it bluntly. Our seventh birthday is in just TWO days. Yes, SEVENTH; that's seven years of my own life that I've dedicated to writing reviews about the things I buy, just so that maybe a few hundred people could read it each day, despite never commenting back (yeah, I check my Google Analytics). Seven years ago I was just starting high school, I had friends from the Nintendo Nsider Forums, and I wanted to share my thoughts on games outside the confines of a message board, and allow them to do so as well.

Thankfully Derek (Reo) gave me that chance, with our own website, and VFH was born. Within those seven years though, things have changed. The world is different, money doesn't buy as much as it used to, and we've all grown up. It's one thing to be able to review what we want whenever we want because someone's parents were nice enough to buy them the latest game. But the real world doesn't work that way when the only money you get goes to food, supplies and rent. The other ... listed writers (I can't really call them active) haven't really been upfront with me about WHY they don't write... but I can get it.

This upcoming year and the following year will probably be the most important time of my life, as I get into production on my thesis year animated film and start looking for a job. At some point I have to realize that I have no priorities in VFH, it's just something that I've done in my free time for seven years. I don't regret any of the time I've spent doing this; I love the feeling of getting that 1 in 1000 comment, I feel more comfortable writing essays and letters because I've spent so much time with VFH. When I brought the site to Blogger, I did so because it made updating even easier, and it allowed me to invite more people and have them share their opinions easier as well. It does sadden me that despite constant efforts to get the other writers more involved with just sharing their opinions, this has always remained a place where I just basically praise the things I like, and Zach doing TV show reviews with me. But, I still got what I could out of it.

I get that we're 1 of a million website on the internet devoted to reviewing games and entertainment, and I completely understand why people would go to an IGN, Kotaku, or other site before here; I go there too. But I never intended to make VFH a competitor for that. I made VFH because it was a place where me and my friends could get together, online, and share with the world I thoughts and opinions. It's why I've always been against putting ads on the site, and shoving the fact that I run a website in people's faces. It's not for the glory, its just a love for what I do. I want to be able to write more about the things I watch, play, hear and read, but I just don't have the time like used to.

I think what I'm trying to say is, if there was an easier way to do this. I would do it. Formal writing takes time, and while it's payed off for me in the long run, it doesn't always make sharing my opinions easy. I could do video reviews, but who wants to be another floating head on YouTube? And then I'd have to worry about video editing. I could tweet reviews, but even as a sentence that sounds stupid. I want VFH to exist, even if I don't always have the time for it.

This is not the end, but it's at least a substantial notice. Thank you.

A Week of Catching Up

First things first: sorry. Sorry that I've had an incredibly busy schedule this summer with my part time job and my job as an artist. Come June I honestly had no free time to play games let alone write reviews for games, and any free time I had was either spent reading or watching movies, once again, not exactly having the time to write about them. But as my last week of summer vacation arrives, I've taken a week off of work to get some things done, including back tracking on reviews for games, movies, albums, television, and maybe even a book or two. It's a lot that I have to do, but if I dont get them done now, they'll never get done.

Now that's my excuse, I can't speak for the other 5 writers...

Some Things to Note

Hello readers, just a couple things I wanted to say. Despite tons of movies, games, and other things releasing this summer, I personally have had quite the busy schedule and have found that VFH just hasn't been my top priority when I have what little off-time I can get. That's not to say that I've given up on this, I still enjoy writing about entertainment as a hobby, but this doesn't put money in my wallet so of course I have to spend most of my time actually working. Not that that explains why everyone else here hasn't written much or at all, but I'm sure I can credit it to similar reasons.

As for the site, there's some changes, some minimal, some major that I want to be noted. For one, you may have noticed that we now have our own favicon instead of the old Blogger "B" logo. But also, I found out how to finally insert page breaks, so starting tonight, all future long posts with have a "read more" link at the bottom to bring you into the full page post, instead of cluttering up the main page with text. With this, I may also go back into all of our past long posts and slim those down with page breaks, and possibly add more articles per page now that everything will be trimmed.

There's still a lot of things I'd love to write about, but just don't have the time. Perhaps I'll get around to reviewing them by the end of the summer, but at this point I don't know. Stick around!

What I Want in a New Star Trek TV Show

io9 had a post today regarding what they thought should be in a new Star Trek television series, and I do agree that there needs to be one to fill the void left by shows like Lost and Battlestar Galactica no longer running... But with all of the original shows (The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and yes, even Enterprise) still in the Star Trek canon despite the time-altering events of the new movie, where does one go when making a new Star Trek TV show?

I already posted this in the io9 comments, but it's an idea I've had since I first watched the new film, so I figured I'll just re-post it here to get it out there and keep it for my own records, with added comments in red.

---------------------------------------------------

My ideal new Star Trek series would be this:

First off, set it in the new time-line. Why? Because while it may not please all the classic fans, it's the Star Trek that's most familiar (and perhaps most appealing) to the average television viewer.

But, since the film's cast is now (mostly) too busy for television, the series can focus on another Starfleet crew. It worked for DS9 and Voyager, so why not now? You set up a whole new 'fresh and young' cast, with some experience characters/actors as well, and you've got yourself some appeal already.

Not to mention, this is a chance to expand the universe of the new time-line outside of just comics and events that take place before the film (i.e. Star Trek: Countdown and Star Trek: Nero). I want to know what's going on outside of the Enterprise; there's a whole new universe to explore that could never be shown in a two-hour film.

Even better, depending on development time and/or filming of both the next film and TV series, you could even have this other ship and its crew have a minor role in the film, or even have characters like Quinto's Spock (w/o Heroes, what's he doing anyways?) show up for an episode arc or two.

This refers to both paragraphs: I think that the mindset for say... Chris Pine, Zoë Saldana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho (maybe) , and even Anton Yelchin, is that they're too big for TV now that they've each been in multiple Hollywood blockbusters, including Star Trek. So ultimately that's the reason I suggest a new, different cast. However, actors like Zachary Quinto, John Cho, and even Simon Pegg have appeared in recent television series, even if it's just cameo roles (i.e. Pegg on Doctor Who, or appearing on Look Around You, though both of these appearances pre-date Star Trek).

Sure, FlashForward and Heroes both got canceled, but I still don't think that's good motivation for a Spock/Sulu adventure series. But at least that now frees up both actor's schedules to possibly appear on the new show to bridge the gap between the new films and this new TV series. And while I think Pegg would be the kind of person to appear for fanboys, the idea of flying all the way to Hollywood just to film a cameo seems highly unlikely. Plus, I wouldn't want to rely too much on the Enterprise crew to be in this series because then the new crew doesn't get the spotlight.

Oh, and get Orci/Kurtzman/Abrams to produce, with Damon Lindelof as a lead writer, and then allow other writers to get their hands on this new Trek. Preferably, set the show up in a Fringe-like 'adventure of the week' formula but still have an over-bearing season long story arc. So that it's kind of like the Star Trek we know, with something new each week, but at the same time can keep you interested in the long run.

This parts tricky, so I'll explain: Orci/Kurtzman/Abrams should at least write the pilot, with Abrams directing, but I picked Lindelof for lead writer for a few reasons. First off, Lost is over, and while he may have only had the role of producer on the new film, he's joining Orci/Kurtzman on the writing staff for the sequel. Second, Orci/Kurtzman still have Fringe to focus on, while also producing the Hawii Five-O TV series remake, while J.J. Abrams has Super 8 and a new TV series, The Undercovers, to worry about. Of all the heads of the recent Star Trek film, Lindelof is the only one with a freed up schedule now, and a new Star Trek series with him at the helm may attract a lot of the Lost viewers that may not have watched a Star Trek series otherwise.

But, at the same time, I'd love for new writers (and maybe even classic Star Trek writers) to take a shot with this new series, especially if it was an 'adventure of the week' type formula. It's something that made the latest series of Doctor Who very interesting and enjoyable, because not only are getting good episodes from the show-runner that's had history with the series, but you have one off episodes from other writers that can give a fresh take on characters while still feeling familiar.

So yeah.. that's my ideal new Star Trek series. I'll sign the contract now.

Sure, my fanboy dream would be to have the film's cast, reprise their roles for television. But I know that just won't happen. What I'm proposing here is what I think would be... logical.

Season Cinco Promo

Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Season Cinco premieres February 28th. You better watch it. And no, This Week in Adult Swim still isn't returning.

This promo video was actually made by Matt Marblo and myself.

Bernard Sumner answers my question!

I pooped a little... Joy Division/New Order/Bad Lieutenant guitarist (and frontman of the latter two bands) answered the second round of Q&A questions on Bad Lieutenant's website today, and guess whose question got answered? MINE!

Now, I wrote this question like... two months ago, and being a Blur fanboy I was a bit annoyed that Blur's bassist, Alex James, didn't get more than just a couple inclusions on some tracks, despite being a reason the band formed in the first place. Here's my question and the answer I got from Bernard Sumner:

"JDW: While I understand that Alex James only appears on a few tracks Never Cry Another Tear, and he wasn’t in the final band because of “distance issues,” but is there any chance of him getting a more central part in the future of Bad Lieutenant? It’s a shame that a talent like his gets over shadowed by fellow Blur-mates Damon and Graham, and it seemed when he finally got his own chance to shine, he was put in the backseat again.

BS: I think that’s a matter of perception. I see all the musicians in Blur with equal standing really. Obviously, the singer is going to get a bit more attention because he is doing something different to the others, is usually the focal point for the band and is usually the biggest c***. The guitarist always looks a bit clever because he’s got so many strings and apparently knows what to do with them. The drummer is the backbone of the band and is the real underrated one. Mmm … Bass players … mmm …"

Besides being surprised that he actually answered my question, I'm a little amused/annoyed at how he dodged the question, seeming having nothing to say about bass players in the end. Thanks Barney. I guess I can consider that our first interview...

Visit Bad Lieutenant's website for the original article.

The Work of Jared D. Weiss

Hey, sometimes we all have to do a little shameless self-promotion. And considering I do run VFH, and cater to all of you wonderful readers, I figured, hey.. why not?

I have just finished launching my new, art focused blog:

As one would assume, this new blog is a way to keep anyone interested in my artwork (and other projects I may or may not take part in), up to date with what ever it is I may be doing. All, in fully written out, image supported, proper form; as opposed to the Twitter I've been using in preparation for this.

It also means that my internet time will now be divided between my personal work and the work I do here at VFH. So if you're noticing a lack of content from myself, chances are it's because of this. But, of course, I can't speak for the other staff members...

Anyways, please, if you could, do me a favor and check out the site. There's still a few things I need to work out in the coming days, like graphic links, and an RSS feed, but as of right now the site is ready for reading!

Thank you all!

PSP finally!

So, just a quick notice to break up the lack of content in the past few days... I just picked up a PSP-3000 today, making me the only VFH staff member with one now. I previous had an original model PSP for a few months, but it wasn't mine.. anyways.

Point is, now that I actually have a PSP, that means you as the readers can look forward to more PSP content such as reviews, impressions, etc. which is one department I feel we've been lacking in since the start of VFH.

Stay tuned!

Downtime

I usually try not to delve into personal stuff while on here, but I figured since it may affect the site I should say something. I'm currently working on a short animated film set for completion in mid-December. Because of this, I'm trying to limit my time here on VFH so that I may focus fully on production.

Hopefully the rest of the staff can pick up the pace, but I just wanted to throw that out there for you. As for the LittleBigPlanet review ... it will be here, as to when ... I cannot say, sorry.

I have LittleBigPlanet!

Looks like that call I got from GameStop was right, as I was able to pick up my LittleBigPlanet pre-order this afternoon. As of writing this I've yet to play the game, other than the Beta, so I can't give impressions yet obviously.

And if you're curious, the pre-order bonus of Kratos, Medusa, and Minatour costumes, as well as God of War theme stickers comes via a scratch off promotional code on a slip attatched to the case. It actually has a redemeption period of 10/21/08 - 1/8/09, so those looking to score one of these slips o eBay or something after Januray ... tough luck.

Look for my review of LittleBigPlanet in the coming week or so!

New Flickr feature

As you should know, we have a Flickr account for VFH, its basically being used for events like E3 and all of its media, as well as for document where we go. Well I'm putting the account to use with a almost daily feature (maybe?). Because of my new surroundings, and my nice view, I'll be documenting the lights of the Empire State Building. You saw the first image of the buildin during the day, but from now on all shots will be from at night (most likely).

Here's the lights for August 23, 2008:

Red, white, and blue; I like how it alternates on the sides; for the Olympics maybe? Anyways, I won't be posting these every night, obviously, only when the lights change. Also, I won't be making a post each time either, so you'll need to actually check the Flickr account until I figure out a way to get a stream like I did for VFHvideo.

UPDATE: New tab added above the VFHvideo tab. It cycles through the entire gallery automatically, but you can pause it and browse as you wish. Clicking images will englarge them in a new tab/window. However, it only shows the 20 most recent additions, so if you want to see more you'll have to visit the actual page.

In the City

Hey everyone, I'm all moved in. Cable here sucks cause I don't have a box; I don't even get Cartoon Network! And I'm also having issues getting the PS3 online. Anyways, the 17th floor ain't all that bad, unless you take the stairs; I tried for the hell of it, not sure if I'll try again.

I have a nice view of the Empire State Building though...

If I'm not busy, and we get some news, I should be able to return to updates.

UPDATE: I do get Cartoon Network, found me a channel listing.... whew, that was close. Also, I managed to find a 32% wi-fi signal, so that'll be my PSN access for now...

Signing Off

So, the day has finally come, tomorrow I'll be moving into New York City. The big time, right? I'm leaving in the morning, but I'm only taking my Macbook Pro, and not my PC, so I should be able to get back on the net fairly quickly.

Also, I won't be taking my Wii with me, so anyone actually still looking to Brawl, oh well. Despite this, I've taken enough notes on Strongbad to review it while I'm away. I'd of reviewed it sooner but, I didn't think the move would keep me so busy. The main reason I'm not taking it is because there's just nothing coming out. Plus, if anything came out on the VC or WiiWare that I'd really need my Wii, Jersey's just two train rides away. But anyways, I'll still have my DS and PS3.

On another note, VFH has reached hELL or hELL00, whatever your preference.

Happy Birthday!

So, this is completely unrelated to games, but hell, it's JDW's birthday, the man deserves some damn recognition!


Anyways, thanks for getting me involved in VFH, and being the only truly interesting person to talk to online. I have no clue what I'd do without ya man. So here's to one more year full of your random knowledge of everything and not dying! :D

Truly in HD + Orange Box impressions

Yes indeed, as reported before, I now have and HD TV, but until today I wasn't getting true HD gaming. But my package from Amazon arrived today! Component cables for the Wii, and the HDMI/USB 2 pack for the Playstation 3. And I purchased The Orange Box for the PS3, and test it out too.

I will first state the obvious that the Component cables dont really imrove that much. But, there was a notable difference in clarity on the menus, and on my VC titles; with more vibrant colors all around. The only disc based game I tried was Brawl, and deflicker on or off, the menus just look strange. However gameplay looks quite nice with the extra space and size.

Now, the Playstation 3 however.. whoa! I'll have you remember I made the jump from standard AV cables to HDMI, there was no component step or anything. So think 480i converting directly into 1080i, its quite the jump. So no, my TV is not capable of 1080p, but 1080i is more than enough from what I was used too. Right off the bat, the XMB is just as sharp as can be, and the PS Store and Browser are crystal clear. The jump from 480i Portal, to 720p Portal wasn't that drastic, but the clearner edges, and smoother color transitions were much welcome. I happen to really enjoy Portal so far. The only other part of The Box I played was Team Fortress 2; all I can say is I love the style, but I'm not too keen on the gamplay. Gonna play Half Life 2 later, I'd like to beat it before I step into the Episodes.

Still don't have an HD cable box... but I do get the 8 or so local stations in HD. The TV's wierd, i get like decimal stations. For instance, 4 is plain NBC, 4.1 is NBCHD, and 4.2 is NBC Weather Plus... who made it alright to have decimal stations?

Seeing The Dark Knight again

Yeah, it's that good. But I'm not seeing it in IMAX again, this time it's just the standard AMC Theatre screen. I'll provide some feedback if its any different, or if the Watchmen trailer is any cooler on the big screen. See ya later!